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My friend and I are following the Abs Diet to lose weight. I want to have another baby, she wants to help her arthritic knees, and look good in holiday photos.

I was supposed to read through Chapter 3 in The Abs Diet book by Monday, Nov. 19. I completely sat down yesterday (thank you giant cold) and read 5 chapters. Can you believe it? I haven’t read that much in a book in one sitting since college. and even in college, I skimmed. lol

Wait, I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me tell you about my day.

I got up, late as usual, and got straight to work. Yay! I’m a social media marketer and addict blogger, so basically I rolled out of bed in my pjs, fixed breakfast (yesterday I had another installment of granola, I told you I had a problem.) and got on the computer. Yes. my job is just as lovely as it sounds. 🙂 Lots of reading, writing, researching, and emailing, but I love it.

Anyway. Once the work was done, I was feeling awful. Remember I told you about my blood pressure problems (one of the many reasons I’m so committed to this weight loss thing, and the main reason I can’t seem to carry babies–read the Welcome note for more details on that.) Well, at night sometimes my head will fill up with what feels like fluid. Who knows what it really is-pressure? air? my mind playing tricks on me? I dunno. But what I do know is that at night when I go to lay down, my head fills up to the point of throbbing, obstructing my hearing, and general well being. I HAVE to get up and sit straight in the bed to let my head reach what I call an equilibrium so that the throbbing goes down, and I can then lay down slowly. I have always blamed it on my blood pressure that this occurred. Until today.

Well, I was sitting at my computer plugging away at finding/uploading pictures of my pumpkin escapades (read about How to Cook a Pumpkin here) and all of a sudden, my head did the same thing it normally does at night, only this time I’m already sitting up. I ignore it because the only solution I know of is to sit up instead of laying down, so I think “Well, I’m already sitting, it needs to just settle itself, I’m working.” Word to the wise, don’t ignore your body when it sends clear signals. A few minutes later the pressure had built into throbbing, which built into pain, and dizziness. So now my head is throbbing, I’m dizzy, thinking I might pass out, and my head is hurting with this stabbing pain at the base of my head. I freak out (because I’m a panicky person most of the time–just imagine what I am like with my son–he’s my first). but I recognize that I am a panicky person so I decide to banish the thoughts of aneurism, emergency rooms, sudden death, and coronaries that are running through my brain. Literally, I was convinced my health had finally caught up with me. I wasn’t on this health bandwagon soon enough, the death trap had found me. But I calmed myself.

my mom totally does not look like this. but this is a comforting picture, isn’t it? 🙂

What does any panicky woman do in that situation? I called my mother. 🙂 She was out of town on a business trip, but she said “Honey, it sounds like a sinus migraine. Is your nose running? Maybe you need sinus medication.” Duh. I’m such an idiot. Of course! Why yes, mom, how do you know things like that over the phone? Exactly the reason Dr. Mom is always better for a first call than the real doc most of the time (at least when you’re as naturally panicky as me). So I took robitussin cold medicine, and that knocked out the pain and the dizziness, but I developed this vision impairment where I had not the “spots” that you think of with migraines, but I had these spinning circles that blink. I’ll try to sketch it and show you what I’m talking about, but let’s just say the fact that I was able to see the screen enough to finish some of my posts was an act of sheer will power. But the pain was gone, so the vision was workable.

After I finished work, I decided I couldn’t exactly feel worse than my head splitting straight open, so I decided to not quit on my commitment to working out, and I did aerobics. Now, I turned on a vapor mist and a humidifier in the room where I was working out, to make sure my sinuses didn’t bring back on that awful dizziness, but I did work out. I did a 45 minute aerobics routine twice. I actually felt better when I was done.

I was tired, but I felt better overall. By this time, it’s like 4 in the evening, so I get a shower and sit down with my book–this is the part where I read 5 chapters. It was really nice. My son confiscated my iphone and played Angry Birds while I read. Round about 5 or 6 (I completely lost track of time) my husband came home and we started planning dinner. We decided to dive right in to the Abs Diet, rather than wait on Monday—but don’t worry! If you guys are following along the “official” start day is Monday, Nov. 19 so please don’t feel rushed. We are all going to go through this at different “ages and stages” as they say, so whereever you are at in your journey, you have our support! 🙂

My friend and I are following the Abs Diet to lose weight. I want to have another baby, she wants to help her arthritic knees, and look good in holiday photos.

The Abs Diet book says to only plan 2 days of meals at a time. It’s mind game you play with yourself. Eating differently (read “healthy”) is a challenge for anyone, and the idea is that if you try to over-commit yourself, you’re more likely to back out or break down. He actually says to sit down the night before and before you go to bed, decide what your meals and snacks are going to be the next day. Have I mentioned that you get to eat 6 little meals all day long with the Abs Diet? I ate dessert last night! It’s amazing.

We had the “gone Fishing” recipe for dinner, and it was great. I substituted broccoli for the green beans it called for as a side, because again–from the juicing–I had leftover broccoli, and I didn’t want to buy green beans. Instead we bought trout, and cooked the broccoli we already had. My whole family (I say that like we have a gaggle of folks, and it’s only the three of us–but still, when a three year old eats it…) loved it. We ate dinner together, as a family, and I didn’t have to make anything extra for myself. I have been excusing myself from dinner to get a shower or whatever else so I didn’t “cheat” and with the Abs Diet, I am eating dinner with my family, AND losing weight at the same time. It’s awesome.

After dinner, we did the evening routine with baths and bedtime for the son, and then my husband and I went through a chapter or two of my book together. We calculated my BMI (waayyy to high–I list my numbers below), my waist-to-hip ratio, and my percent body fat. No fancy equipment required, just a calculator. The book walks you through how to calculate all of these numbers for yourself, but I’m sure also that you can google them. I’ll see if I can find some links and I will post them on the blog.

Finally, we did the first Abs Circuit workout. The book outlines a daily workout routine, complete with one cheat meal a week where you eat whatever you want, and one rest day where you don’t do “formal’ exercise, though it does suggest a leisurely walk for that day.

We found the day during the week that we were on that day, and we followed the instructions. It was a full body strength training exercise. It was awesome. I don’t have any gym equipment here, so we had to modify a few of the exercises, but we did it together. My husband would hold my feet for me to the back extensions (I leaned off the edge of the bed since I don’t have a bench press bench) and he would encourage me to do “just one more.” and time me on the wall sits, saying “only 10 more seconds, you can do it!” It was really great to get to spend that time together, and you just wouldn’t believe how insanely supportive he is of this journey–for me. He is a great man, my husband. 🙂 (Shameless admiration there. haha).

The book outlines how aerobic exercise is not the most important for weight loss, and I suppose I agree, but I like aerobics, so I think I will keep doing that (mostly to keep myself motivated and not backing out). I have plans to meet up with Robbie tomorrow at the park to do interval walking, and weights. 🙂

Where are you at in your journey? Did you get the book yet? Have you started reading it? What do you think?

My numbers. As promised, I share my numbers. Today, the 2nd “Official” day into the Abs Diet, I weigh 185, have a MBI of 30-37 (depending on how you calculate it–but in the obese range. Anything over 30 is obese. below 25 is normal/healthy.), and a waist to hip ratio of .98 (lower than .8 is healthy). Obviously, I have work to do, but that’s what this blog is all about, right? So let’s get started!

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Hello! I’m Cassidy. I write this blog.

This is a picture of me with my heart and motivation, E. We wanted a sibling for E long before now, but I struggle with pregnancy because my body isn't healthy enough to sustain one. I'm writing about my journey to healthy living in hopes that it encourages and supports other women in the same boat. Whether you are trying to get pregnant, need to be healthy in general, or need help feeding those meat and potato husbands and kids, I hope you find encouragement here. Thanks for stopping by!